Abstract

What does a culturally intelligent organization look like?  Organizational cultural intelligence (OCQ) is described as the ability of an organization to operate effectively in culturally diverse contexts. While a few theoretical models have emerged in recent years to better understand OCQ, very few empirical studies have been conducted.  The aim of this quantitative study is to investigate the organizational structure and social power factors that contribute to OCQ.  A survey was conducted in a multistage sample of 253 participants whose job roles corresponded to 48 units within six multinational, Protestant nonprofit organizations. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation identified relationships between OCQ and hierarchy of authority (centralization), rule observation (formalization), and both informal and formal power bases. The regression analysis results revealed a moderating effect of job codification in the relationship between OCQ and expert power. This study makes several significant contributions including the findings that OCQ is not experienced consistently across the different subsidiaries in multinational organizations’ structure, but organizations high in OCQ have a consistent approach to enforcing rules. Organizational leaders play a key role in enhancing OCQ by leveraging their use of informal power, fostering inclusion across the organization, and adopting structures that are appropriate for the local context while harnessing the expertise of its diverse workforce. As the level of OCQ increases, the decrease in the number of rules that determine what workers do enhances the impact of the leader’s expertise resulting in increased creativity and engagement in new approaches.